Comments on: Obama puts MADD chief in charge of highway-safety agency

By: “Enviros Forced NHTSA Nominee To Withdraw”

“Enviros Forced NHTSA Nominee To Withdraw” — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:42:31 +0000

[…] Hurley withdrew not because of the many liberty-hostile positions taken by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, but because of one of the issues on which he was right, namely, […]

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:49:02 +0000

Chuck Hurley is a great guy and would have done a terrific job. The country is losing the opportunity to have someone of his caliber Its tha “luck of the Irish” to have this happen

By: April 30 roundup

April 30 roundup — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:17:51 +0000

[…] of Mothers Against Drunk Driving CEO to head highway safety agency [Balko, see also comments on earlier […]

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:48:44 +0000

I will make a generalization about the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: its interests and those of its principals, if not its methodology, align perfectly with those of MADD. Insurance companies would happily mandate the abolition of a number of risky (but pleasurable) activities, and impose all sorts of draconian restrictions on ordinary life, to reduce their exposure.

In the end an insurance company is focused on its bottom line, like any other business. Risk reduction may be fine business for insurance companies, but I’m sure most would no more want to live in a world insurers controlled than one governed by MADD.

I don’t know anything about flaws in IIHS’s methodologies, but I can certainly guess its agenda. An insurance company is a harsh nanny.

By: GR

GR — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:34:01 +0000

The Balko blog has a comment contains a wonderful quote that’s worth repeating here:

“It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.” — C. S. Lewis

By: Walter Olson

Walter Olson — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:44:20 +0000

I don't intend to get into sweeping generalizations about the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety one way or the other, but if you wonder why someone's former employment with that organization might not be viewed as any guarantee of the general soundness of their later research or advocacy, this article may help.

By: bailey

bailey — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:54:56 +0000

Wow, a motorcycle industry lobbyist once criticized one of their reports, I guess they’re really not a research-based group.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:51:36 +0000

Officer: Have you been drinking?
Driver: I have a new car with an interlock.
Officer: We have a breathalyzer that is more prone to false positives. We’ll go by it.

Or will it be an affirmative defense in court?

By: Douglas2

Douglas2 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:17:52 +0000

IIHS devoted to a research-based approach? Did you know that if you google “flawed report, passed off as scientific research” every single link provided relates to the IIHS?

By: russ

russ — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:24:04 +0000

Does this mean that Obama is not planning to eliminate the automobile? Now I’m really disappointed.